I dug through these forums about knobs, nOb CONTROL, Kontrol Master, and some other things knob-related such as using any knob one may already have, mousing over a feature in Reason, and getting that cool knob functionality. Then electrofux said, "You can use Bomes Midi Translator to emulate such a behaviour with any controller."

It got me thinking: this is a software issue! We all have knobs on our existing MIDI controllers. Just imagine if you could use one of your existing knobs to function like the pro-knobs but perhaps without having to install Bomes Midi Translator. For me this would be an amazing native Reason feature--to just place the mouse pointer over just about anything in Reason and immediately be able to turn a knob. Anyone agree? Or has anyone emulated this type of functionality with Bomes or another 3rd party layer? Should Reason let us pick a knob of choice and then have mouseover functionality?

Yeah that would be a pretty cool feature. I thought about getting one of those controller knobs and spent a decent amount of time creating custom mappings for my controllers until I learned that on the macbook you can enable three-finger dragging which works really well for controlling knobs and sliders. If you happen to have a mac with a touch pad under accessibility > mouse & trackpad > trackpad options > enable dragging you can enable three finger dragging. If you need fine control you just only move your middle finger while your other two fingers are on the touch pad.

Yeah, this has been something I never knew I wanted until I saw Kontrol Master, and I agree that it would be much better as a native feature.

The biggest advantage of Propellerhead making it native, versus solutions that emulate a mouse, is that you can get higher resolution with a direct mapping. With Midi Translator or the Kontrol Master driver, you still have to hold down shift if you want to make fine adjustments, but a direct mapping could let you use a high-res encoder to get the precise feel of an analog potentiometer.

I’ve never used Teenage Engineering’s Ortho Remote, but it looks like it would be a good option to pair with such a feature.

Seems like it would only mean working out an agreement to get this in Reason!

Nice find, but that wouldn’t be necessary. There’s no benefit to licensing technology that lets you convert MIDI to mouse movements if you’re Propellerhead and you make the application you’d be sending mouse movements to!

That’s what we mean when we say native; we mean no “middle-man” turning MIDI data into mouse data to turn it back into MIDI data again. Native support for hover control would mean MIDI CC goes straight into Reason just the same as any other Remote-mapped control, the only difference being that Reason checks to see where the mouse is to determine which control Remote maps to.

A native solution would naturally have some UI implications as well. Maybe it’s as simple as an icon following hovered controls when in hover mode, or perhaps a colored outline around each control as you hover over it.

Seems like it would only mean working out an agreement to get this in Reason!

Nice find, but that wouldn’t be necessary. There’s no benefit to licensing technology that lets you convert MIDI to mouse movements if you’re Propellerhead and you make the application you’d be sending mouse movements to!

That’s what we mean when we say native; we mean no “middle-man” turning MIDI data into mouse data to turn it back into MIDI data again. Native support for hover control would mean MIDI CC goes straight into Reason just the same as any other Remote-mapped control, the only difference being that Reason checks to see where the mouse is to determine which control Remote maps to.

A native solution would naturally have some UI implications as well. Maybe it’s as simple as an icon following hovered controls when in hover mode, or perhaps a colored outline around each control as you hover over it.

Ok. I don't really understand how it works so got a bit excited. I just hope we end up with mouse hover knob control somehow. I'd find it so useful.